But it added that matters could be "more temperamental than such things usually are" because using so many computers introduced their own issues.

In the online version of the 18-rated violent crime game, up to 16 players can interact simultaneously within a virtual environment and create personalised avatars.

It is included free with every copy of the GTA 5 console video game. According to one analyst's figures, more than 15 million units of the title had been sold by early last week.

"At a conservative estimate I would expect about two million players to log on to GTA Online within the first 24 hours," added Keza MacDonald, UK games editor for IGN.com, the video game and entertainment site.

"Rockstar has never done an online game of this scale before, so they are totally unproven in terms of their network infrastructure.

"And even the highly successful World of Warcraft at its peak didn't have as many people playing online at once as GTA is likely to have, so it wouldn't surprise me if there were problems."

Sluggish

Other bestsellers have faced issues after their servers failed to cope with demand.

Owners of Electronic Art's Sim City - which requires players to be logged into its servers to play - experienced waits of up to 30 minutes to get started and then sluggish gameplay when it went on sale in March.

EA later apologised and offered a free title to those affected as compensation. It said more people had logged on than it had expected, adding they then played differently to the way its testers had.

The previous year Activision Blizzard saw its servers for Diablo 3 come under severe pressure after its launch.

The term #error37 trended on Twitter after players were shown the code alongside a message telling them to wait and try logging on later. At one point the firm took its websites offline to reduce demand.